Developers, government see major changes for Sarasota

Dramatic reshaping of downtown includes new condominiums, hotel towers, more landscaped sidewalks and traffic roundabouts.

By JOSH SALMAN

A rebounding economy has developers rolling out new projects and city officials touting infrastructure improvements at a greater pace than any time since the market's crash six years ago.

Combined, the investments could dramatically reshape Sarasota's urban core — with new condominiums, hotel towers, more landscaped sidewalks and traffic roundabouts along U.S. 41 from the bayfront to University Parkway.

The list of ambitious new proposals follows a near-halt of commercial development during the Great Recession. With housing making a comeback, and visiting tourists opening up their wallets in record numbers, officials now believe the timing is again right to discuss redevelopment plans that, in some cases, date back more than a decade.

But several lingering issues continue to stand in the way.

“We have a lot of exciting projects going on, and we have some good opportunities here to try and bring the products we want downtown,” said Norman Gollub, the downtown economic development coordinator who works with the city, the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and the Sarasota Downtown Improvement District.

“We need to transition away from marginal operators,” he told about 150 business owners, Realtors and developers gathered Tuesday morning to discuss the latest proposals during a meeting of the Sarasota Association of Realtors' Commercial Investment Division.

City officials pointed to a downtown merchant base that is largely built on small mom-and-pop businesses, with a lack of prominent anchors on Main Street, and infrastructure that is not friendly to pedestrians or bicyclists.

Sarasota planners are now in the early stages of crafting an inventory database of downtown businesses, including gross square footage, sales and shopper demographics to identify the district's biggest needs.

The idea is to use those findings to help lure retailers, restaurants and younger demographics downtown.

Gollub said the top issue currently hurting downtown cash registers is vagrancy, with many merchants even willing to pay higher taxes for bolstered security measures.

Another issue is the fact that many stores and businesses downtowny close at 5 p.m., despite studies that suggest 70 percent of retail sales occur after normal business hours and on weekends.

Some downtown landlords are now writing mandatory operating hours into their leases, forcing shops to stay open later, Gollub said.

He also said the retail and office space adjacent to the Hollywood 20 movie theater has been poorly used, that Main Street needs another shopping anchor near the Herald-Tribune building, and that merchants should come together to offer more promotions to bring customers downtown.

“Main Street is very long with heavy traffic on each end, but not much going on in the middle,” Gollub said. “We need more pedestrian generators.”

Private sector

Sensing the market's rise, developers are resurrecting ideas for downtown not seen in years.

Potential growth has also prompted city officials to expedite planned road, sidewalk and landscaping improvements in and around downtown.

The private-sector projects are led by a luxury condo tower dubbed “The Jewel” at Main Street and U.S. 41; Kolter Group's 18-story condo project and twin Westin hotel planned at Gulfstream Avenue and U.S. 41; a townhome development on Ringling Boulevard known as “Q"; and a handful of other downtown lodging projects.

Other potential projects include nearly 8,300 square feet of new commercial space proposed for the Payne Park plaza and new retail space at 1515 Fruitville Road.

City officials also maintain that they are still hopeful commercial projects might rise at the former Sarasota Quay and behind the Gator Club, a mixed-use project known as Pineapple Square.

But even while the local economy is climbing, commercial vacancy rates in downtown Sarasota continue to exceed those of other thriving communities.

“Downtown Sarasota is the beneficiary of an improved commercial real estate market,” commercial broker Ian Black said. “Everywhere right now is experiencing a definite increase in activity. There's no reason Sarasota shouldn't see the same.”

Public sector

That uptick in downtown investment has fanned a similar boost in government spending.

The city is now underway on a $5 million beautification project to improve the urban core with new sidewalks, new plants and the burying of overhead utility cables.

To handle increased traffic, the city will also install a series of new roundabouts at major intersections along Tamiami Trail, between University Parkway and Mound Street. The Downtown Master Plan 2020 called for four roundabouts, including two planned at Orange Avenue and Main Street and Ringling Boulevard and Orange Avenue.

City planners hope the roundabouts create new business nodes in areas that have struggled to draw consumers, while also making the corridor safer for both pedestrians and drivers. There have even been talks about planting sculptures in the middle of each roundabout to beautify the area.

“This will make Sarasota more multimodal,” said Steve Stancel, chief planner for the Sarasota neighborhood and development service center. “Traffic and pedestrians trying to cross 41 is a problem. Using roundabouts can slow down traffic from 50 to 35 miles per hour, but you can push the same number of vehicles through because they're moving constantly.”

Plans for the North Trail also call for new medians to separate traffic, with narrower lanes to reduce speeding, and new landscaping and a multi-use trail along parts of U.S. 41.

The city is also looking at narrowing Fruitville Road to just one lane in each direction around the Rosemary district to encourage other methods of transportation.

Connecting Newtown

Officials hope the new roundabouts and road improvements will help trigger further private investment throughout the North Trail and Newtown neighborhood — both of which have been plagued by crime and blight.

Newtown is Sarasota's largest African-American community, but the area has an estimated 25 percent jobless rate when counting discouraged laborers who are no longer actively seeking work.

But city officials said Tuesday that recent renovations in those districts have also helped to spruce up north Sarasota, including a $905,000 storefront grant program; $29 million invested in the Janie's Garden low-income housing development; $9 million pumped into the Robert L. Taylor community complex; $58 million devoted to the rebuilding of Booker High School; and the new $6.4 million King Stone Apartments.

The new Walmart Neighborhood Market on Tamiami Trail — which replaced a Winn-Dixie grocery store — is also the type of development planners hope to attract there.

Marian Anderson Place, 13 vacant acres on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard valued at $850,000 and once used as an illegal dump, is the top site planners are marketing.

“Newtown is part of Sarasota, and we need to connect our whole community,” said Lorna Alston, general manager of the North Sarasota Redevelopment Division. “We should be looking at this as an opportunity.”